The wrong signal

LESOTHO’S coalition government this week announcedit was going to implement a process that would result in“the dignifi ed, graceful and secure retirement” of PrimeMinister Thomas Thabane.

That process, we were told, would result in Thabane’s“immediate” retirement from offi ce.The deal, brokered by a South African delegation led byformer minister Jeff Radebe, would mark the end of whathas been a tumultuous and testing period for Thabaneand Lesotho.

Of course, there have since been discordant voices ofprotest from hawks within Thabane’s camp who say theweekend deal will not hold and that the premier was notgoing anywhere.

That “war talk” was to be expected given the high stakesin the fi ght to succeed Thabane. We are not surprised thatthis cabal that is close to Thabane has been fi ghting toprotect their turf and the trappings of power.In a bizarre address on Lesotho TV last Saturday,Thabane accused certain elements within the police andmembers of his own ABC party of seeking to subvert alawfully constituted government.

He then sent the army onto the streets.Thabane’s deployment of the army, which caught everybodyby surprise, startled regional powerhouse SouthAfrica forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa to immediatelydispatch a high-powered delegation to Maseru.

However, it is the contents of the communique issuedafter the meetings that is of interest to us.We are sure that no Mosotho would want to deny Thabane“a dignifi ed” exit after his outstanding contributionsin the public service for the past fi ve decades.

Their only problem would be in interpreting what constitutesa “dignifi ed and secure retirement” for the PrimeMinister.That is because Thabane is facing a very serious chargeof murdering his estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane, inJune 2017.

Thabane’s new wife, ’Maesaiah Thabane, is also facingthe same charges.Political analysts have always argued that Thabanewould not leave offi ce until he secured some kind of dealto stop his prosecution over the Lipolelo murder.

If the “secure retirement” insinuated in that communiquerefers to an amnesty deal for Thabane and his wife,then it would be a travesty of justice.

Thabane and his wife have always insisted they werenot linked in any way to the Lipolelo murder and it wouldonly be fair for them to have their day in court. With theirprivileged standing in society, the two will certainly haveaccess to some of the sharpest legal brains in the land.

It is our hope that the politicians will not rush to cutdeals behind the scenes that leave a bitter taste in themouths of ordinary citizens. Such a move would also set avery bad precedent for Lesotho.

And before we conclude, we wish to comment briefl yabout the controversial deployment of the army last weekend.We know we have a very sad and unfortunate history ofan army that has not been shy in the past to wade into thepolitical arena on behalf of politicians.

That must not be allowed in a democratic society.Politicians must therefore not be in the habit of usingand abusing state machinery to fi ght what are effectivelynarrow and partisan interests.

These are the same things Thabane fought againstwhen he was in the opposition. What was wrong fouryears ago can never be right merely because Thabane isnow in power.

The deployment last weekend therefore sent the wrongsignals about the direction we are taking as a country.

Lesotho’s opposition parties are adamant that they will push a vote-of-no-confidence in the government led by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili when Parliament re-opens tomorrow. This could set in motion a

AS reported elsewhere in this newspaper, SADC has implored the government of Lesotho to urgently convene an all-stakeholders conference to discuss the pressing issue of reforms. Since August 2014, SADC